In his January 2005 essay "Grow Up? Not So Fast," author and Time senior writer Lev Grossman popularized the term "twixter" -- a young adult loitering in the transition stage between post adolescence and full-fledged adulthood. "There was a time when young people looked forward to taking on the mantle of adulthood. That time is past. Now our culture trains young people to fear it," Grossman wrote.

The Buick Verano and Acura ILX are automotive twixters, caught betwixt and between the adolescent, mainstream models they're born from and the adult luxury models they emulate. They're positioned as entry luxury sedans tasked primarily with snaring the up-and-coming consumers of Generation Y (many human twixters can be found in this age group).

Your average Motor Trend reader knows the ILX and Verano share platforms, wheelbases, and more with the Honda Civic and Chevrolet Cruze, respectively. They start in the mid-$20Ks with basic engines. We found the $30K performance iterations more to our liking, namely the2013 Acura ILX with the 201-hp, 2.4-liter four-cylinder and idyllic six-speed manual from the Civic Si (but not its helical limited-slip differential), and the 2013 Buick Verano Turbo (its trunk badge reads simply T), powered by General Motors' 2.0-liter turbo-four with 250 hp and an eye-catching 260 lb-ft of torque, also matched to six forward, driver-selected gears.

There's a classic showdown between normal aspiration and forced induction here. Both engines and shifters proved entertaining to unwind; the ILX for its unmistakable, Honda-revving-happiness, and the Verano for its short boost time, gratifying midrange torque, and predictable power delivery. Whereas the Acura continues the ritual of precise gear slots and easily modulated clutches, the Buick calls for more dramatic clamping force on the third pedal (not unusual for a turbo engine) and slightly longer throws through its F40-MYJ transmission (the transmission's lone appearance in GM's U.S. lineup).

If 0-60-mph times are your yardstick for vehicular worthiness, the Acura's 0.4-second advantage will leave you smitten. But in the real world, the Buick will move the twixter in you from the coffee shop to the Apple store more quickly, with surprisingly effortless ease once the turbo spools, and without the need to slam gears. Plus, if you happen to be in a hurry, passersby won't be on the lookout for a vehicle lowered to the ground, with a half-finished paint job. Growing up invites maturity and reduces the need to draw attention to oneself.

Inside, each cabin is decked out simply, ideal for those who favor uncomplicated elegance. The color palettes include lots of black, the preferred choice for an all-business cockpit. The leather seats in both cars are comfortable with minimum bracing. Head space is noticeably tighter in the Acura front and back. Though it claims 2.9 inches more back seat legroom, the Verano suffers from a high center hump and is tighter on second-row knees than its specs would suggest. If navigation systems are a must-have, the ILX 2.4 won't work, as nav isn't available, though it's offered on other ILX trim levels. Nav adds $795 to the Verano Turbo.For millennials more concerned with ride quality and refinement than tech features (we're sure there are a few of them out there), the Verano Turbo rides on specially tuned front shocks and springs rated about 20 percent stiffer than on the standard Verano. Its electric steering effort is heavier than on Buicks past, but it's no harder to push around town than a Lucerne was. There's plenty of compliance, so much so that the car could be considered soft, with loads of vertical movements when the suspension is getting worked.

Bearing in mind its mission, the ILX is fitted with unique Amplitude Reactive Dampers designed to soak up the tiny bumps and jiggles, then tighten up over larger jounces and potholes. They help isolate bumps and surface imperfections felt with regularity in the Civic Si while reducing the chassis edginess found in the Honda. That said, the ILX's overall ride is still plenty firm. Acura's focus on curbing weight is impressive -- our test car weighed in at 2953 pounds laden with cowhide and seven speakers -- and the ILX just skims the road. Its light steering is on the numb side, but it works well enough.

What isn't all that impressive on the ILX, though, is its sound deadening. I had serious doubts whether this gateway luxury vehicle made any improvement in interior noise abatement over its boy-racer Civic Si cousin. As it turns out, the Acura exhibits about 5 percent less racket on the sone scale (see noise control sidebar) than the Si. But the Verano blows them both out of the water, as our test revealed. The ILX allowed in 18 percent more wind, road, and impact clamor in sones than the small Buick. That's a substantial difference, and there's no question the Verano's QuietTuning has paid dividends, although sound deadeners may account for much of its 498-pound weight penalty over the ILX. Supporters of lightweight cars may be under the impression the Acura will run away on a tight, twisty road. It doesn't. The Verano felt right at home on curves that'd scare off most of the rest of the Buick and Acura lineups.Buick's recent brand resurgence has never been clearer than from behind the Verano Turbo's steering wheel. Meanwhile, the ILX puts in a solid effort to broaden Acura's reach, but doesn't separate itself enough from its Honda-badged cousin. Grossman's article claims twixters grow up when they see "it's worth their while." The Verano Turbo is much closer to automotive adulthood than the ILX, and to us it's the choice for twixters and others looking for a more mature car with just enough adolescent edge to keep things fun.

Second Place: Acura ILX 2.4

Identity crisis? It's a hoot to drive, thanks in large part to its Civic Si roots. Should fare well with the Honda faithful, but how many ordinary-Joe buyers are looking for a noisy luxury car you have to rev up to really enjoy?

First Place: Buick Verano Turbo

If you insist the Verano is a fancy Cruze, then it's a Cruze that is using its gym membership, taking dance lessons, and is ready for bigger things in life. It's a soft-spoken, well-executed four-door for the true adult.Judging Noise ControlWhile personal hearing sensitivity can affect noise level evaluation, it took all of five minutes to realize the ILX's cabin was quite a bit noisier than the Verano's. We wanted to objectively know what the sound level gap looked like.To learn more, we drove the ILX and Verano on a two-way control road at a steady 65 mph in top gear, with the climate controls and sound systems shut off. This intends to mimic a typical highway cruise on varying road surfaces for a balanced representation of real-world conditions. One direction always disturbs the cabin acoustics more than the other, and we average the best showings going both ways.

Using both the sone and dBA scales to profile a vehicle's noise control (or lack thereof) presents a much richer picture of what's happening in our ears. The sone is an especially useful metric since it was created to measure perceived loudness on a linear scale, making straight-up comparisons much easier. The more widespread dBA scale is logarithmic in nature, which is harder for non-mathematicians to grasp.For more perspective, we threw a standard Civic LX with a five-speed automatic and our summer-tire-wearing, long-term Civic Si into the sound-recording mix. Unfortunately, efforts to procure a Chevy Cruze for measurement were unsuccessful.The lower the number, the better the cabin's sound isolation.

Car

Acura ILX 2.4

Buick Verano Turbo

Honda Civic LX

Honda Civic Si

Sones

32.5

27.6

33.4

34.2

dBA

72.9

68.9

72.9

73.6

Pandora Out of the BoxThis member of Gen Y is well aware there are several great Internet radio apps, but the only one even close to becoming a genericized trademark is Pandora. Along with competing products like Spotify, Stitcher, and Slacker, automakers have embraced integrating the Pandora interface into their in-car entertainment systems. Although I'm a fan of Androids, the ILX and Verano's Pandora setup works best with iPhones. All you need to do is connect the iPhone via USB, launch Pandora on the smartphone (Verano also supports Stitcher), and you can control the app through the vehicle controls. The display on the Verano is easier on the eyes and has a crisper and more vibrant graphic user interface. The photos intend to show off the difference in screen sizes, too: 5 inches in the Acura and 7 in the Buick.

I just picked up my 2013 Buick Verano Turbo, fully loaded, on January 31st! While it may share the body with the Chevy Cruze, the similarity ENDS there! I just turned in a 2011 Cruze LTZ RS with 13,300 miles that i HAD to get rid of because of the crappy shifting transmission that GM IS aware of, but refused to do anything about except to say, "operating as designed"! I'm kind of mad because I would have leased a 2011 Buick Regal in 2011 instead of the Cruze, but the Red Jewel tint coat color was NOT available back then, so I unfortunately went with the Cruze.

It's only been a few days, but the Verano is really quiet and luxurious AND FAST! It reminds me of my 1996 Buick Riviera that I had with the supercharged engine. You justLIGHTLY press on the gas and you are GONE! I hope this car turns out to be troublefree for the next 39 months.

Because I read the performance data and not just the 0-60 and pointed out that you made an inaccurate assumption I am biased? O.O......Its 2012, now days if someone agrees with you that easy way to deal with it is to chalk it up to bias. I wouldn't buy either of these cars because either of these cars is what I want. However MT does have posted performance data and what you said about the Acura ILX out performing the Verano wasn't based on the MT data (except 0-60 time). I take offense when someone is making a factless claim, though I have no problem if you just like the Acura better everyone is entitled to their opinion. However do not make up facts or ignore facts because you want to make a false claim and the facts get in the way. This is my first time posting on a automotive article and I wanted to post because some of the people on here have amazing bias that makes them ignore facts. That is a real bias, and way to prove what I said to be wrong.........

I find it disappointing they don't factor in resale value as Buick's vehicles prices plummet rapidly as they age. And quite frankly if somebody asked me what car I drove, I would never in a million years want to tell them I drove a Buick. Acura has class, even if it's based off the civic, which is notably outselling many many cars, perhaps the vast majority if not all cars Buick makes.

Black Dynamite, you really need to take another look at the performance data and all of the performance data as it tells a different story. As the Acura is faster from 0-70MPH, it gets to 30MPH much faster then the Buick. The Acura gets a .9 second advantage to 30MPH (luanched better then the Buick). However the Buick actually pulls it in after that and by 60MPH that .9 second gap drops to a .4 second gap. They reached 80MPH in the same 10.7 seconds, and by 100MPH the Buick actually has the advantage of a .9 second gap. So the Buick makes up 1.8 seconds on the Acura from 0-100MPH I would consider that dramatic. Also the Buick wins the 45-65 passing, braking, lateral acceleration, and figure 8. In other words the Acura wins the launch however is actually slower then the Buick. I know that marketing has trained us all to jump right to the 0-60 performance metric. Though you are completely right on the fuel economy comment, just wrong about the others.

2 nice cars. awesome to see MANUAL SHIFTING!to have a 6 speed shifter available is great!when you put the extra $$ into ''how much more per month'',with 0% or very low financing, it does not cost much more monthly for the ''up model'' why not drive something that has some pizzazz ?mom can drive the suv or mini van lets have some fun !(she can borrow my car on occasion)

cheeserandcheesy222, Both the Legend and NSX were based off the Accord platform, and even used the same engines, granted they were tuned differently. Also, the Verano is also based on the Cruze, so what's your point?

I never met a Honda or Acura that was truly quiet, so I believe the extra 500 pounds of lard makes the Buick quieter.That the Buick has a ton more power and torque, and is still slower, tells me it needs to have a salad, and stop being such a big fat load.In the real world, a turbo engine tugging an overweight chassis won't return fuel economy like the Acura. So the Acura is lighter, more efficient, and quicker on it's feet. The Buick is more refined and quieter. The looks, interior space should be a wash. Wouldn't pay over $29k for either.....BD

I'm missing the documentation that is supposed to support the conclusion that the Buick is quieter than the Acura. If sones are a linear measure, then the Acura is 19% quieter than the Si. Where are the Buick's scores? All we know for sure is that it is obese, gets significantly worse mileage while being measurably slower, and has all the brand equity of an ex-Budget Skylark. I'm on the fence about whether the ILX is a worthwhile product or not, but driving the Buick is a badge of dishonor.

the problem with acura is simple. you can't basea car off a cheaper (honda) product and be a genuine premium brand a la bmw or mercedes. the last good acura was the legend and the nsx and from that point on this mark has been nothing but mud. the engineers and designers in japan are like kids drugged on anime. playstation driving. good design evolves pretty much from within europe mostly and in part the us. designing a car anywhere else, especially japan, is disastrous. a simple example is a tokyo temple vs. the vatican or versailles. which design approach is the more attractive? versailles. by a long mile.

@unavailable,I think now that the mainstream sedans are putting out a more more premium look than ever before, it's gonna be a hard sell appealing to all of Gen Y. I agree that high trim midsizers are better in many ways. But those who are around 30 should go for it though, as they're hopefully earning those assistant and associate director positions and feel they'll need something of a status symbol when they park next to their boss now.

@Stephen WatzekYour Integra sold for $5k not simply because it was a Honda product, but because it was an Integral. Those old cars have maintained a huge following over the years. An 89 Accord would never run for that much, or anywhere close to its original value. And with reliability nowadays being more or less equal, it makes no difference who you buy.

@JDubbs115,I know that the cars offer navigation systems. I was lamenting the fact that neither of these cars actually has one. The $800 premium for the Verano's nav system makes it even worse. I'm glad you mentioned the Optima SX. You could option that car with everything these cars have and more(the ILX and Verano don't offer cooled front seats or rear heated seats and the Optima does) for less than $32K. Sadly, I agree that most buyers won't recognize that they are paying a premium for a tarted-up econobox, which makes what Honda and GM is doing even more shameful.

@unavailable the Verano does offer navigation. The ILX does as well, but not with the bigger motor. Remember that most consumers (not MT aficionados) won't know that these cars share platforms with less expensive brands, so the goal is to sell them on the Buick and Acura names and image. That said, I'd love to see the average age of the buyers of these two and compare them to something like a Kia Optima SX, which has nearly all of the same features while presenting a youthful look and a similar starting price.

What is the point of these cars? There's not much more luxury(if any) than a loaded up mainstream mid-size car don't offer much in the way of performance. No amount of leather can cover up the fact that both of these cars are tarted up mainstream compact cars. The Verano in particular still has the Cruze's torsion beam suspension, which is simply unacceptable for a $30K "luxury" car. To top it all off, both get terrible fuel economy. Did I also read that neither of these $30K+ cars have navigation?